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FIRST AID AT WORK RE-QUALIFICATIONS
There has been a significant change to requalification rules. Please see the Guidance, particularly sections 74 - 79. This is the guidance that all employers must adhere to.
The L74 Guidance replaces what was known as the Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) and came into effect on 1st October 2013.
Below is an important extract, which is particularly relevent for you:
Certificate validity, requalification and refresher training
74: All first-aid training certificates, whether FAW, EFAW or some other appropriate training, are valid for three years. Employers need to arrange retraining before certificates expire. The FAW requalification course lasts two days and should cover the same content as the initial FAW course (Appendix 5). If the first-aider does not retrain or requalify before the expiry date on their current certificate they are no longer considered competent to act as a first-aider in the workplace. They can requalify at any time after the expiry date by undertaking the two-day requalification course. However, it may be prudent to complete the three-day FAW course, especially where a considerable period - ie in excess of one month - has elapsed since the FAW certificate expired. It is for the employer to decide the most appropriate training course to requalify the first-aider. An EFAW requalification course should be of the same duration and content (Appendix 6) as the initial EFAW course.
This has the following implications:
- Once a certificate has expired, the employee is no longer a First Aider, whereas previously, they still could be within their 28 day grace period.
- As an Instructor, this also applies to you - once your certificate has expired, you will no longer be able to teach First Aid. You must, therefore, attend an Update course in good time prior to your certificate expiry, in order to maintain continuity in your training.
If you have any queries regarding this, please contact us.
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